Tuesday, December 07, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

YUCCA MOUNTAIN PROJECT: Board raises questions about shipping plans

DOE's progress comes under fire

WASHINGTON -- A Yucca Mountain review board has raised questions about the Energy Department's progress in planning to ship thousands of tons of nuclear waste to a proposed Nevada repository.

With the department still clinging to a goal of opening a burial site in 2010, it has yet to put in place a comprehensive organization "that can develop a safe, secure and efficient transportation system," according to the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board.

The panel said it feared that budget constraints or a rush to meet deadlines may compromise safety planning as the department organizes to move 77,000 tons of highly radioactive material across 44 states to Nevada later this decade.

Judging from presentations so far, DOE has yet to pull together complex matters of cask design, truck and rail acquisition and waste onloading and offloading "to ensure that the transportation system will operate successfully," the board said in a three-page letter sent Wednesday to the Energy Department.

A board member was not available for interview on Monday, but a staff adviser said the letter was written before the Energy Department announced on Nov. 22 that a Yucca license application will be delayed into 2005. A growing number of industry officials and scientists believe the DOE goal of having a repository open by 2010 will slide as well.

"It's fair to say the board is concerned given the 2010 schedule that there is an awful lot to do, but if the schedule is relaxed, the board would be less concerned," the adviser said. "The important thing is to do it and do it right."

DOE officials will review the letter before commenting on it, spokesman Allen Benson said. Yucca managers have acknowledged the transportation planning has been underfunded to this point as they concentrate on preparing a repository design and a license application.

Bob Halstead, a transportation consultant hired by the state of Nevada, said the board's views echo concerns of officials in a number of states who are trying to gauge how DOE will shape its shipping program.

States are particularly concerned whether DOE will have enough money to help them with emergency planning and how that money will be distributed, Halstead said.

Talking about nuclear waste shipments to Yucca Mountain "is like talking about the Iraqi elections," Halstead said. "Everybody hopes they will be successful, but anybody who is an objective observer has to be filled with trepidation."

Jack Edlow, president of Edlow International Company, a waste shipping firm, said the technical board laid out a road map for DOE to follow.

"I must say nothing jumped out at me that seems to be a showstopper or anything that is not already being contemplated," said Edlow, who heads the U.S. Transport Council, a coalition of nuclear waste shipping concerns.

On transportation planning, DOE "is not behind yet, but they need to begin the process next year, and with a funding stream, I believe they will be able to do that," Edlow said. "They need to involve the private sector more."

The technical review board is an independent body created by Congress to evaluate the Yucca program. It meets several times a year to explore project segments, reporting its conclusions to federal lawmakers and the Energy Department.

Among its recommendations, the panel said DOE should focus more attention on a backup plan to ship waste through Nevada by truck in case a repository railroad line cannot be built in time.